No Interference, No Goal, Pens Lose Reviews & Game 2; Series Tied 1-1

The replay showed Washington Capitals forward Brett Conolly tripped Matt Murray, but the Capitals first period goal counted. In the third period with the Pittsburgh Penguins trailing by two, an NBC replay zoomed in, showed definitively Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist scored what would have been a huge goal but the NHL review ruled it inconclusive.

“We respectfully disagree with the league and the call,” said Penguins coach Mike Sullivan.

The Penguins sloppiness again cost them dearly but in Game 2 they were not able to bunch goals and lost to the Capitals 4-1 Sunday at the Capital One Center.

The Capitals dominated the first period. They outshot the Penguins 20-10, including two shorthanded shots, which equaled the Penguins output on the first power play.

Just over one minute into the game, Capitals dynamo Alex Ovechkin established the Capitals tone. Ovechkin (7) snapped a wrist shot from 35 feet over Murray’s glove hand. Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin pinched forward at the Capitals blue line which created a two-on-one break.

In the first four periods in Round 2, the Capitals had seven odd-man breaks. Including Ovechkin’s tally, the Capitals scored on three.

After a Sidney Crosby hooking penalty, the Capitals earned a power-play goal. Jakub Vrana (1) split three penalty killers as he walked from the wall to the front of the net. The Penguins challenged the goal as Connolly chopped Murray’s skate, which unbalanced Murray.

However, the goal stood.

Two minutes into the second period, the Capitals kept coming. The Capitals transitioned quickly after a Dominik Simon turnover.

Capitals third line center Lars Eller sprung Connolly on a breakaway. Connolly (1), as the previous two Capitals goal scorers did, beat Murray to the glove side. Murray got a piece of the puck, but not enough. It rolled across the line.

The Penguins dominated the second period but could erase their three-goal deficit. The Penguins outshot the Capitals 16-6 in the second period.

The Penguins did score once in the second period. Hornqvist and Dmitri Orlov had a gloves-on scrap midway through the period, which created a four-on-four.

The Penguins scored again midway through the third period. Sidney Crosby couldn’t complete the wrap-around shot but Hornqvist stuffed the puck across the line, barely, but still across the line. NBC replays, zoomed in, were able to show white ice between the goal line and the puck, but the Toronto controlled review didn’t use the picture.

The Penguins didn’t get close again as the game devolved into chippy penalties and message sending.

Nicklas Backstrom scored the empty-netter with six seconds left.

Holtby stopped 31 of 32 shots. Murray stopped 30 of 33.

Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin was injured four minutes into the second period. Capitals agitator Tom Wilson was chasing Dumoulin and delivered something close to an elbow to Dumoulin’s jaw. Dumoulin laid on the ice. He left the game, presumably had to go through the concussion protocol, and did not return.

This Saturday’s Game 5 start time has been set at 7 p.m, at Capital One Arena.

7 Comments

John

April 29, 2018 at 6:49 pm

PENS split at WASH and PGH will be motivated Game 3 after referee bad calls and Tom Wilson’s shenanigans. Wilson has a history and deserves 2 games. I thought the league had a zero tolerance policy on high head hits.I hate Tom Wilson. Time for Kessel to insert himself for a big time Game 3. This is where the Reaves trade hurts. He polices the ice and was playing good hockey when dealt to Vegas. The hyphenated name Capital got away cross-checking PENS. PENS have answered the bell last 9 series facing adversity. They should win Game 3.

The slow starts are baffling, especially with veteran players.
12 needs to sit.
81 who shows zero battle along the boards hurts the PP as the Caps have been aggressive attacking the forwards.
43 is the new version of Matt Cooke. If he is on your team, you love his effort and intensity, if he is not, he is a dirty player.
8 is the Pens best d-man. His loss is significant.
Winnable game but Pens came up short. They’ll bounce back. Go Pens!

Sorry to call out the obvious, but if calls (plural!) as bad as those made in this game happened in any other major sport in the playoffs, it is all that anyone would be talking about. How is Wilson not ejected? How is Orlov not ejected after a knee-on-knee and several times punching people? How is what was clearly shown to be a goal, not a goal, even after review? And yet, the hockey writers and talking heads will continue with the narrative that it’s all even b/c calls are always missed. Sorry, but intentionally trying to injure people and calling goals non-goals isn’t the same as a missed tripping or high stick call. The only positive from this is that the Pens outplayed them for 40 of 60 minutes and were in reality within 1 goal despite the lopsided officiating.

Lopsided officiating coming from a Pittsburg fan is just plain hilarious. While I, unlike many other Caps fans, can actually understand the Wilson suspension, three games is definitely excessive. Your examples of horrible goal/no goal calls are just wrong. The interference call wasn’t really even close. He took a very common whack to his pad and pulled a little, something that happens too many times to count in a game. The simple fact is your goalie has ample time to completely reset, he proceeded to eat a four course meal in net, and then the puck went in. I was afraid they would take the goal away from us……because it’s Crosby and the Penguins……but in this instance it really wasn’t even close, and they simply couldn’t. I applauded the challenge, because you never know what they are gonna rule these days, and especially with it being the NHL’s golden bitch boy Crosby, of course they would take advantage of the horrible inconsistencies to take away our goal. In this instance though, lets get real. Your goalie had plenty of time to reset himself, square up, and do his job without being interfered with. Imagine if bumping a goalie that far between the time of the “interference” and a goal scoring became the norm? What an absolute joke that would be. Legit goals would be coming off the scoreboard like crazy. The other no goal, which I keep reading about how obvious the “white ice” was between the puck and the line, is actually a little more difficult. I can admit that I would have certainly wanted that goal, as I thought it was in when I first viewed the zoom shot. I can also honestly say that replay actually got it right. So often, especially in NFL games these days, we hear officials say they stuck with the initial call because it wasn’t absolutely conclusive on replay, even though replay clearly shows something different. Sometimes you can’t 100% see every detail, but any level of basic reasoning, or common sense, can allow you to arrive at an absolute conclusion that the call was incorrect. You can’t see the football, but the ball is in the rb’s right arm, which clearly was over the front of the goal line before his knee touched, etc.. Anyways, I say all this because in this case, you definitely can not 100% conclude that the puck completely crossed the line. While their is definitely some white at the edge of the puck, it’s clear that the “white line” is elevated some and connected to the pile of shaved ice stacked up at the post. Was the puck likely over the line by a millimeter, probably, is their conclusive evidence that it is 100% over, absolutely not. If it had been a Washington goal, I would have been pissed, but after a good look at the zoom in picture, it doesn’t take long to notice the shaved ice at the goal line and against the puck……..with white shaved ice covering the back edge of the goal line, and the edge of the puck as
well, their is no way you could over turn that call on the ice and rule that a goal. After years of being the superior team going into the series, and somehow finding a way to lose to the Penguins in the playoffs, the better team has finally won this series…..after years of terrible puck luck, terrible officiating, and some inexcusable terrible collapses, against the Penguins in the playoffs, we still owe the Penguins plenty more crushing playoff series loses……and more continued regular season ass whoppings too.